A routine lunch for a Home School Legal Defense Association mother and her 8-year-old daughter at a local restaurant resulted in an unexpected and unwanted meeting.

The lunching duo was approached by an older man who asked the mother why her daughter was not in school. When the mother replied that she homeschooled her daughter, the man identified himself as a school truancy officer and said, "I'm going to have to arrest you."

The mother wisely decided that the best course of action was to ignore this man. After a few moments, he left the mother and daughter and did not bother them again.

Later, the family called HSLDA. We called the school district with the name and description of the man. The school district immediately confirmed that he was not a truancy officer with the school district, and their truancy officer would never approach a family in public and threaten to arrest them.

We encourage families to know their rights. You are free to keep a flexible homeschool schedule. If you are harassed by someone claiming to be from the school district, and they are in fact not from the school district, you always have the option of reporting this to the police.